Clackmannan, North Street, General

The following text has been prepared as part of the HES Urban Survey of Clackmannan, 2021-2.

The main component of the Clackmannan Historic Core Area of Townscape Character lies at the centre of the town, focused on the High Street (NS99SW 51) and Main Street (NS99SW 59), running East along a ridge leading from Clackmannan Tower all the way to Cattlemarket (NS99SW 162). Kirk Wynd (NS99SW 142) and Port Street (NS99SW 143), leading north and south from the junction with High Street and Main Street, and North Street (NS99SW 124) and Garden Place (formerly Archibald Place) (NS99SW 144), running parallel to Main Street, help form the core of the former burgh. For the purposes of this study, the small pockets of late 19th-century development on Port Street, Cattlemarket and Kirk Wynd, as well as remaining outlying buildings or areas formerly occupied by mining villages, have also been considered as part of the Clackmannan Historic Core Area of Townscape Character when studying how the town developed.

Clackmannan developed initially as a royal burgh and displays the stereotypical layout of Scottish burghs. The key feature is the herringbone street pattern, with Main Street and High Street leading east from the boundary of the Tower, and plots or riggs running off at right angles behind the main street. To the rear are the original back lanes, now North Street and Garden Place. This basic layout remains visible in the streetscape today.

Main Street retains many original buildings, including, at its widened west end, the market cross (NS99SW 3) and the surviving 17th-century section of the former tolbooth (NS99SW 2.0). Most of the street retains a range of 19th-century, traditional two-storeyed and two-storeyed-plus-attic terraced houses and tenements, with single-storeyed cottages at Nos 3, 56 and 62. All are either stone-built or harled/whitewashed, with slate or pantiled roofs, and timber-framed sash and case windows in varying glazing patterns. Both sides of the street have some areas of 20th-century redevelopment, designed in the ‘conservative surgery’ style (as at High Street) to maintain the integrity of the earlier Main Street streetscape (discussed in more detail later). No 2 Main Street (NS99SW 56), with its interesting-shaped Dutch-style gable facing Main Street, and crowstepped gables to Port Street, is the earliest building on the street, dating from c.1700. Originally the Royal Oak Inn, it was reputedly named after a locally owned ship, and was converted to flats in the 1990s.

Terminating the eastern end of the south side of Main Street is the imposing red sandstone Town Hall (NS99SW 103), which was a donation by the local mill-owner, John Thomson-Paton (1832-1910). The original library, reading rooms and billiards room were built in 1888 to designs by Adam Frame (c.1837-1901), but were soon extended in 1903 to Ebenezer Simpson’s (1854-1934) Art Nouveau design which incorporates carved panels ‘LIBRARY’, ‘READING ROOM’ and ‘PUBLIC HALL’ with an elaborate carved pediment containing the town’s coat of arms above the entrance doorway. An additional extension on the east elevation was added by the local authority in 1992-4, using artificial red/pink stone at upper level, harled and rendered at lower levels, and comprising dormer windows at roof level which mimic an earlier style.

Other notable buildings on Main Street include the former Co-operative Society building at No 61, with its central scrolled pediment with ‘COOPERATIVE SOCIETY LTD FOUNDED 1863’ carving and topped by a tall double chimneystack. This date refers to when the Society was formed rather than the date for the building, which was actually built in 1891 to designs by architect James Johnston (n.d.). The ground-floor shopfronts have been filled in and replaced by modern frontages occupied by two takeaways (at the time of writing, 2022; No 61 was occupied by the town’s post office until c.2016), but the first floor retains the original arched sash and case windows. The current (2022) Co-operative Food store occupies Nos 23-25 Main Street, in a late 19th-/early 20th-century former townhouse with a central pedimented dormer. The original ground floor has been completely replaced with a modern shop front, but the first floor retains original sash and case windows in a two-four-two pattern, with interesting nine-paned glazing in the upper sash. These are two of the more interesting buildings from the Victorian/Edwardian period on Main Street, and probably replaced earlier terraced houses, while retaining the scale of the streetscape. (Both of these buildings are noted at NS99SW 59 for Clackmannan, Main Street, General).

Main Street remains a predominantly residential street, whilst also forming the town centre. This is reflective of no deliberate commercialisation of a ‘town centre’, as seen in other small burghs and villages where they have become reliant upon another town -in Clackmannan’s case, Alloa. It currently (2022) has two public houses, a takeaway bakery/café, hairdressers, pharmacy, two takeaway/fast food outlets and the Co-operative Food store. Other social amenities are spread across all three Areas of Townscape Character identified in the town: primary school, health centre, neighbourhood shops, bowling green, churches, playing fields and pavilions, along with other individual retail and commercial units.

However, most of the key buildings within the town are found within the Clackmannan Historic Core Area of Townscape Character. The parish church (NS99SW 19) dominates the skyline, sitting on higher ground at the west end of Main Street, to the south of High Street. Designed in Gothic style by eminent architect James Gillespie Graham (1776-1855), it was built in 1815 on the site of an earlier, 13th-century, church, and has a four-stage square tower at the west front. The associated manse predates this church, being built in the mid-18th century to the south of the churchyard. This two-storeyed Georgian villa has had small extensions added to the side and rear elevations, but retains most of its original features and proportions, including a full-height bay window added to its westernmost bay in 1863 by James Maitland Wardrop (1824-82). The graveyard surrounding the church contains a range of stones, many dating from the 17th and 18th century. It was given a new entrance with a lych gate (see NS99SW 143 for Clackmannan, Port Street, General) leading off from the main junction of Main Street and Port Street, incorporated within the redevelopments of the late 1950s/early 1960s. The lych gate, dated 1966, is formed of stone walls supporting a red-tiled piended roof, and black-painted wooden gates. It forms a link between the two housing developments flanking the churchyard entrance.

Two other churches were built in the centre of Clackmannan during the late 18th and 19th centuries. The Relief Church was built in 1788 and stood on the corner of North Street and Kirk Wynd but was demolished c.1933. The manse for this church, another substantial stone-built villa built in the mid- to late 19th century, survives halfway down Kirk Wynd, at No 23, but is now in private hands. Finally, in 1845, the Free Church (NS99SW 104) was built at the north end of Kirk Wynd, to designs by John Burnet Snr (1814-1901). George Alexander Kerr (1865-1927) carried out alterations to the church c.1900, and it was converted to a masonic hall in 1938-9. Its key feature, a central bellcote, still survives and it retains its form and masonic function today (2022).

The lack of Georgian/Victorian development in Clackmannan is noticeable compared to other similar towns, which saw extensive expansion during this period. Apart from the key buildings discussed, only a few detached and semi-detached cottages were built on the roads leading out from the burgh core (Kirk Wynd, Port Street and Cattlemarket). Mostly single- or one-and-a-half-storeyed, these were generally plain, stone-built with slate roofs, though some have bay windows and dormers to attic floors. Those along part of Alloa Road tend to be more substantial, with some additional decorative features such as finials to dormer gables. In the north-east of the town, on Mill Road, Clackmannan House (NS99SW 65), built c.1815, remains a relatively unaltered typical Georgian villa although now surrounded by housing dating from the later 20th century.

Towards the end of the 19th century, there was a growing interest in leisure activities as a means of keeping the working population suitably occupied outwith their working hours. In particular, sporting pursuits were encouraged, and Clackmannan saw its fair share of sports clubs and facilities springing up. These were focused in the outlying mining hamlets on the edges of the town boundary, mostly around the southern edge, at Duke Street, Green and Square. The 1870s and 80s saw the establishment of cricket, rugby, curling, tennis and football clubs, and a bowling green was built at the south end of Castle Street. The 2nd edition of the OS 25-inch map (Clackmannanshire, 1900, CXL.5) shows the football ground and curling ponds on the site of what is now Chapelhill, which is where the tennis courts were also believed to have been from 1895. The bowling club still remains, and a new pavilion (NS99SW 160) was built for the club in 1892. Due to the nature of development within the town after the Victorian period, most recreational spaces now lie on the edges of the town and fall within the Clackmannan C20 Industrial Expansion Area of Townscape Character (NS99SW 165).

Alongside the residential, religious and leisure developments in the town, education was provided through a series of schools within the historic core of the town. The Public School (NS99SW 62), designed by architect Adam Frame (c.1837-1901), was opened on Alloa Road in 1897, with additions in 1924-7 by George Twigg (1873-1953) of the same architects’ firm. The school was still marked on the 1967 edition of the OS 1:10,560 map. It was closed and demolished when a new primary school (NS99SW 134) was built in 1971-2 to the south of the town on Lochies Road (lying within the Clackmannan C20/C21 Commuter Expansion Area of Townscape Character (NS99SW 165)). The site of the public school is now occupied by late 20th-/early 21st-century housing developments (Millbank Crescent (NS99SW 126) and Livingstone Way (NS99SW 121)). Ordnance Survey maps from 1863-6 (1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Clackmannanshire 1866, CXL) and 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Clackmannanshire c.1863, CXL.5)) show there were two other schools already in the town before the public school was built. One is noted on the maps just to the east of the Free Church on Alloa Road, and the other is on North Street, also noted as ‘School and County Hall (disused)’ on the OS 25-inch map of c.1863. This latter school has also been known as the ‘penny school’, and the building was used as a masonic lodge between 1922 and 1939, before being put to military use as a drill hall (NS99SW 107) during WWII and subsequently part of a Territorial Army Centre prior to its demolition in the early 1970s. The school connection remains in the street name of the red brick bungalows now occupying the site, in Pennyschool Place (NS99SW 125), dating from the 1990s.

Despite these fairly isolated developments across the oldest parts of the town, it was not until the mid-20th century that any major impact was felt in the burgh core. County Architect William Higgins Henry (1905-84) undertook the principles of Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) and sought to improve substandard properties in the High Street (NS99SW 51) and Main Street (NS99SW 59) by demolishing some of the 18th- and 19th-century tenements and terraced houses, by reusing significant elements from these in the rebuilding -termed ‘conservative surgery’. The replacement buildings were mostly built on the footprints of the original buildings, with some alterations on High Street to create small courtyard developments off the main thoroughfare, allowing more units to be created in the same space. Some additional development took place into Kirk Wynd (NS99SW 142) and along North Street (NS99SW 124), while Archibald Place, to the south of Main Street, was rebuilt and renamed Garden Place (NS99SW 144). Many of these new buildings incorporated recreated traditional features such as crowstepped gables, corbelling and carved skewputts, examples of which may or may not have been present on the original buildings they replaced (photographs of the street prior to redevelopment have not been able to be viewed at the time of writing to confirm (May 2022)). However, these details are appropriate for the townscape, particularly as traditional building materials (or appropriately sympathetic materials) have been used -harling in either white or cream/beige, pantiles, and some timber sash-and-case windows. Stone has been used for details around base courses, window dressings and door surrounds, as well as forming distinctive arched pends giving access to back courts.

At the west end of High Street’s (NS99SW 51) north side, are a group of adjoining single-storeyed cottages (Nos 64-72) with pantiled roofs, in traditional vernacular style. Next to these are more single-storeyed cottages formed in an L-plan off the street (Nos 44-8). These also have pantiled roofs and are a mix of stone base courses and gable ends, and harled. While the windows are traditional twelve-paned sash and case style, entrances have more contemporary (to 1960s) glazing patterns lighting small entrance halls, with a mix of large and small oblong and square panes. This style is also seen at the redeveloped Nos 32-8 Main Street (see NS99SW 59 for Clackmannan, Main Street, General), though windows have been replaced with later double-glazed units, and there are two-storeyed examples in the same style further west at Nos 26-30 Main Street. In the middle of the north side of Main Street, Nos 33-47 also replaced dilapidated terraced houses and display the same features of beige harling, stone base courses, pantiled roofs and sash and case style windows as at Nos 16-20 High Street.

Nos 22-42 High Street (see NS99SW 51 for Clackmannan, High Street, General) are simpler in design, with a mix of single- and two-storeyed terraced houses, comprising brown corrugated tiled roofs, beige harling, and sections of stone cladding around entrance doorways and pends. Glazing here is more contemporary and some have more recent replacements. As High Street reaches the junction with Kirk Wynd, some traditional details start to reappear with crowstepped gables, corbelling and twelve-paned sash and case windows at Nos 2-20. This continues round the corner into Nos 1-11 Kirk Wynd (NS99SW 142). There is a two-sided sundial on the corner at No 2 High Street, along with a carved panel above paired ground-floor windows. No 4 has a reused datestone above its entrance door. The east end of the south side of High Street has another row of adjoining single-storeyed, harled cottages (Nos 1-13) with pantiled roofs and sash and case windows with mixed glazing patterns. These lead into the group of cottages and two-storeyed house on Port Street which flank the lych gate entrance to the churchyard (NS99SW 143). Again, there is a mix of harling and stone finishes, but all mimic the vernacular style. Behind Main Street, Garden Place (NS99SW 144) displays a mix of styles from the Henry developments: single- and two-storeyed with stone dressings to doorways, red-tiled or slate roofs, arched pends in terraced blocks, and some corbelling and shaped skewputts as details at No 21. Similarly, North Street’s (NS99SW 124) redevelopment comprised both single- and two-storeyed terraces, simple in composition, but with rusticated stone surrounds around entrances and at base courses, the rest being grey/beige harled with red tiled roofs.

The 1990s saw some other alterations to the townscape of the historic core, with terraced housing at Nos 49-59 Main Street being replaced with a pair of two-storeyed flatted dwellings, and Nos 57-59 being truncated and infilled with a flat-roofed commercial unit. The town’s population growth justified the building of a new health centre around the early 1990s, and this one-and-a-half-storeyed building still sits at the junction of Main Street/Cattlemarket/North Street. Composed of red brick base course, cream cement render and brown corrugated tile roof, it has a small area of lawn in front and to the east side, and a car park to the rear, all enclosed by a section of boundary wall from earlier buildings.

Despite this major redevelopment of much of the main thoroughfares in the former burgh, Clackmannan has managed to retain most of its historic street layout at its core. By retaining the basic form of the burgh, the relative plot size, building height, materials and density of the town centre has also survived, aided by the sympathetic redevelopment carried out in the 1950s and 60s by W H Henry. This was recognised when the redevelopment works won a Civic Trust Award in 1959 for quality, sympathetic and sensitive design in a historic townscape.

More in-depth discussion on the character of two further Areas of Townscape Character identified in the town can be found under:

-Clackmannan, C20 Industrial Expansion Area of Townscape Character (NS99SW 165)

-Clackmannan, C20 and C21 Commuter Expansion Area of Townscape Character (NS99SW 166)

Information from HES (LCK), 23rd November 2022

The following text has been prepared as part of the HES Urban Survey of Clackmannan, 2021-2.

OVERVIEW OF CLACKMANNAN C20/C21 COMMUTER EXPANSION AREA OF TOWNSCAPE CHARACTER

The Clackmannan C20/C21 Commuter Expansion Area of Townscape Character filled in spaces around previous expansion of the town, mainly to the north, south and east of the burgh core where private and speculative housing development has occurred from the late 1960s onwards. In the 1980s, the A907 was re-routed as a bypass road around the north side of the village and much of the later commuter town development has occurred in the land sitting between Alloa Road (formerly the A907) and this bypass.

Several societal changes are at play in influencing Clackmannan’s continued expansion from the late 1960s up till the present day. From the 1970s in particular, there was a shift towards home ownership rather than renting or local authority-supplied housing. Over the course of the late 1960s, local authorities began to withdraw from building council housing, but there was still a demand and a need for houses. Alongside this, tighter restrictions started to be imposed on eligibility for council housing. As a result, private housebuilders commenced building homes for owner occupation, and banks and building societies began offering mortgages more widely which enabled people to purchase their own home.

In tandem with home ownership, car ownership at this time was also increasing, and this influenced people’s decisions about where to live and work. Owning a car provided more options on where to live as people were not then restricted to places close to their workplace and/or with good public transport connections. Suburbs and smaller towns on the outskirts of larger settlements became ‘commuter towns’. Clackmannan saw itself becoming such a town even as early as the late 1960s.

The vast majority of development within the Clackmannan C20/C21 Commuter Expansion Area of Townscape Character has been residential, with the provision of a new larger school and health centre to support the growing population in the town being the only other additions to the townscape in this time. This Area displays many different features from the Clackmannan Historic Core (NS99SW 164) and the Clackmannan C20 Industrial Expansion (NS99SW 165) Areas of Townscape Character.

Common features across the Clackmannan C20/C21 Commuter Expansion Area of Townscape Character, from the earliest to most recent, include materials used: red brick to provide detailing; cream/beige/white harling; sections of artificial stone facing; and timber cladding/weatherboarding. A variety of properties are spread throughout the Area, but they are mostly two-storeyed or bungalows, with semi-detached or terraced more prevalent in the earlier developments, then detached larger properties more recently, though with a return to inclusion of terraced and flatted social housing.

The late 20th/early 21st century has seen the rise in private housebuilders dominating development and housing provision. As a result, most of the housing from this period are examples of styles and designs seen across the country. Property firms simply take a mix of their designs and arrange them to best fit the land available to them, rather than considering local styles and materials. Street layouts during this period, as seen here, are less structured than during earlier periods, with cul-de-sacs and meandering streets adding interest to the townscape. There has however been very little non-domestic development in Clackmannan during this period. The only examples of late 20th-/early 21st-century additions are the new primary school on Lochies Road (NS99SW 134), and the health centre at the junction of Main Street/North Street/Cattlemarket. The town centre/burgh core still retains some civic facilities such as the church and town hall/library (NS99SW 103), along with a few commercial units.

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION OF CLACKMANNAN C20/C21 COMMUTER EXPANSION AREA OF TOWNSCAPE CHARACTER

LATE 1960s/1970s

The Devonway (NS99SW 132) and Mary Place developments appear to have been built in the mid- to late 1960s in the north of the town between Tower Place and the cemetery and is the earliest development in the Clackmannan C20/C21 Commuter Expansion Area of Townscape Character. These schemes consist of terraced and semi-detached two-storeyed houses, with flat-roofed blocks of garages set apart from the houses, arranged around a series of cul-de-sacs, with some properties at right angles to the main streets, and accessed via footpaths flanking shared open green space. Devonway also contains a group of semi-detached bungalows on the northern and eastern edge of the scheme. All have brown or red corrugated tiled roofs, are white-harled with red brick detailing to base courses, where gable-end walls face the main street, and also within paired entrances to the bungalows. These bungalows are of the same style as the small group of bungalows designed by William Higgins Henry (1905-84) at Backwood Court (NS99SW 137) within the Clackmannan C20 Industrial Expansion Area of Townscape Character (NS99SW 165). Most have had the original windows and doors replaced, and a handful have had small extensions or canopied porches added. However, the original structure and layout of the area can still be recognised. In the midst of Devonway, is a single-storeyed pitched-roof commercial unit, which has operated recently (2000s) as a carpet shop and hair salon, though this would have originally been built as a small neighbourhood shop. Many late 20th-century developments built outwith original burgh boundaries or town centres, had convenience stores included in the schemes to provide residents with the basic necessities, meaning they didn’t have to travel far for occasional groceries over and above their main weekly shop, as well as helping to foster a sense of community within the schemes.

The 1970s saw development start to occupy land to the south-east of the town, filling the space between Alloa Road and the railway line. The first development here took place in Brucefield Crescent (NS99SW 130), which had two phases: Nos 1-9 and 2-16 on the south-west half of the crescent being built in the early 1970s; the remaining portion to the north being a continuation begun in the early 1980s. The first phase consists of six pairs of semi-detached and one detached house. All are composed of yellow brick at ground floor and to side elevations, with white or grey harled upper storeys, weatherboard panels below first-floor windows and brown corrugated tile roofs. No 1 is detached and appears of a slightly later design with its front elevation entirely composed of yellow brick, and varied roof levels. The early 1980s phase introduces more variety in design with a mix of bungalows and two-storeyed properties, using red and yellow brick, harling, and some rusticated artificial stonework.

Mannan Drive (NS99SW 136), St Serf’s Grove, Mercat Place and Ladywood continued to expand the town to the south-east during the mid- to late 1970s. These streets comprise a variety of styles with a mix of one-and-a-half- and two-storeyed, semi-detached, and detached homes, interspersed with semi-detached bungalows, all set in fairly large plots. While the development is composed of fairly regular blocks, there are cul-de-sacs leading off, and at the end of, St Serf’s Grove on the edge of town, and boundaries are marked by hedges of varying heights, low boundary walls, or fences, though many are open to the pavement and road. A variety of materials has also been used throughout the scheme, mostly red brick (though some yellow brick and rusticated artificial stone) with white/grey/beige harling, and some painted timber weatherboarded panels. Roofs are mostly red pantiles and grey or brown corrugated tiles.

Dating from 1974, Burnside Crescent (NS99SW 135) consists of a small group of seven semi-detached, two-storeyed houses and two semi-detached bungalows, with red brick to ground floor, cream/beige harled upper storeys, and grey corrugated tile roofs. Bungalows have red brick sections defining where they join. A third pair of semi-detached bungalows (Nos 5 and 6), nearest the slope down to Goudnie Burn, were demolished due to subsidence in 2009 (CC130809 Item 08 Demolition of 5 & 6 Burnside Crescent, Clackmannan (clacks.gov.uk) Clackmannanshire Council Head of Housing, Property & Benefit Advice Service Report to meeting, 13/8/2009 (accessed 21st November 2022)). These started to fill a gap between the town and the main road bypassing the town. The land beyond the crescent has only been developed very recently (from c.2018).

As a result of the growing population during the course of the 20th century, a new primary school (NS99SW 134) was built for the town in 1971-2. Set at an angle on a corner plot at the junction of Lochies Road and Port Street, the school was designed by the then County Architect for Clackmannanshire County Council, Alexander John McLaren (1922-2017). It demonstrates many features common to school buildings of this period, being flat-roofed and partly clad in a mixture of concrete aggregate panels and red brick, with large areas of glazing allowing as much light as possible into classrooms. The lower primary occupies a single-storeyed block to the south-east, while the upper primary is in a three-storeyed block to the north-west. These are linked by a reception and administration block with nursery projecting to the north.

1980s/90s

Clackmannan continued to grow during the 1980s. Forming a crescent with short cul-de-sacs leading off it, Cherryton Drive (NS99SW 127) in the north-east of the town is a medium-sized development from this time. This group of detached and semi-detached houses bear the hallmark rusticated artificial yellow stone to main elevations and cream/beige harling from this period, with tall corrugated brown tiled roofs with gables to front elevations.

Leading northwards off Alloa Road, Millbank Crescent (NS99SW 126) stands out from other developments from the 1980s by displaying a very English character to its design, being mostly faced in red brick with mock timber-framing and cream render to parts of the first floor on most of the houses. It comprises a mixture of terraced, semi-detached, and detached houses surrounding a small car park flanked with semi-circular grass verges at either end, which gives the street an open feel.

Elsewhere in the town are examples of individual houses from the 1980s/90s period, such as in Craigrie Road leading west out of town. These are individually designed, rather than uniform styles, but composed mostly of yellow brick or rusticated artificial stone, brown corrugated tile roofs and some sections of painted timber weatherboarding.

Pennyschool Place (NS99SW 125), off North Street, was built on the site of what was latterly the drill hall (NS99SW 107) and part of the local TA Centre (1940-c.1973), previously the masonic lodge (1923-39), and originally a school also known as the Penny School, which is where the street gets its name. This group of thirteen detached, semi-detached, and terraced bungalows are arranged around a courtyard, built in red brick with brown tiled roofs and brown paintwork to windows and doors, typical of the materials used in construction during the 1990s.

Duke Street (NS99SW 131) and Marquis Drive are also stereotypical of the red brick bungalow-style of housing that was being erected across Scotland during the late 1980s/early 1990s. Arranged along an H-shaped set of roads and cul-de-sacs to the south-west of Alloa Road, the bungalows are all the same design, though sometimes mirrored, and with some slight variations towards the north-western end of Marquis Drive. All are set back from the road, with no boundary walls to their large front gardens, giving a very open feel to this part of town, which extends into the 21st-century Laird’s Drive to the south-west.

Northfield Gardens (NS99SW 159) to the north, adjacent to the railway line, displays similar red brick bungalows to Duke Street and Marquis Drive. Although slightly larger and following a different layout and design, almost all houses in the street are of the same design, apart from one pair of semi-detached houses in the northern corner of the cul-de-sac.

LATE 1990s/EARLY 2000s

Moving into the turn of the 20th/21st century, growth slowed slightly in Clackmannan. Development over the late 1990s and early 2000s was on a much smaller scale in terms of area, though the scale of individual units was larger, with more detached properties being built. Livingstone Way (NS99SW 121) is a small cul-de-sac, off the earlier Millbank Crescent, consisting of four detached and eight semi-detached, two-storeyed houses dating from the early 2000s. Displaying typical styling of housebuilding at this time, they comprise rusticated yellow/blonde artificial stone at ground-floor level, white harling above, and red or grey tiled roofs. No boundary walls mean front gardens are open to the street, which is a mixture of red monoblock paving and tarmac, again characteristic of this period.

Just further south-east from Livingstone Way, Hetherington Drive is a cul-de-sac off the north-east side of Alloa Road, consisting of three four-in-a-block style blocks of flats and four detached houses. Apart from No 1, which is red harled with rusticated red artificial stonework and brown corrugated tile roof, all are a similar style to Livingstone Way, and may have been built at the same time by the same developer. Likewise, three detached houses tucked into the eastern end of North Street (Nos 29-33) (see NS99SW 124 for North Street General) may also have been by the same developer. Sections of stone wall form boundaries to the front gardens here, either reinstating an original wall, or reusing stones from the site to keep the historic flavour of the original back lane to Main Street.

Continuing south-west from Marquis Drive, and dating from c.2009, Laird’s Drive (NS99SW 123) forms the southern edge of the town and consists of a series of detached bungalows roofed with pantiles or grey tiles with red ridges. All are cream harled with rusticated artificial stone cladding to base courses, and ashlar quoins and dressings. Some detail has been added with a white mock timber framing feature in some bays. The street itself is a long meandering T-shaped cul-de-sac, paved with a mixture of tarmac, red monoblocks and grey cobbles. Front gardens are open to the street but separated by a tarmacked pavement on either side.

The most recent expansion in Clackmannan, starting c.2018 to present (2022), is Millburn Gardens (NS99SW 122) which fills the ground in the east of the town, between the A907 and Goudnie Burn. This comprises a range of detached and semi-detached houses along with terraced and flatted blocks of ‘affordable homes’. Two-storeyed, with a mix of red or yellow brick and white or cream harling, and grey tiled roofs, they are typical examples of early 21st-century family homes built across Scotland, and the UK, to standard housebuilder designs. The development has a through road, giving access from both the main road, the A907, and the B910 Riccarton which leads into Clackmannan from the north-east, but within the development are a series of short twisting cul-de-sacs, also characteristic of housing estates of this period (c.2020). The inclusion of ‘affordable homes’ is a common feature of housing schemes built during the 2000s, as the availability of older council, or social, housing was reduced as a result of the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme from the 1980s. Most, if not all, modern housing developments must include an element of affordable housing as part of planning permissions. These tend to be smaller properties within terraced or flatted blocks in the estates.

More in-depth discussion on the character of two further Areas of Townscape Character identified in the town can be found under:

-Clackmannan, Historic Core Area of Townscape Character (NS99SW 164)

-Clackmannan, C20 Industrial Expansion Area of Townscape Character (NS99SW 165)

Information from HES (LCK), 23rd November 2022